Parker County Brewing Company — Restaurant in Willow Park

We are not from the area, but have been there several times in the last16 months for business. We first experienced PCBC May 18, 2020. We quickly became Raving Fans. It was, what we can assume a typical, post lock down Monday. They were fairly busy. We had some beer and pizza with a business partner. When he left we moved to the bar. A very accommodating beertender answered our questions regarding the beer. Turns out he was the Brewer. He raved about "30 for Life" but it was a limited batch and they no longer had it...BUT they used it to create a "lighter" version called "25 to Life" We loved it and took some home. I STILL have a can in the fridge. (see photos) I refuse to drink it. It is the very last one in existence!! :)

My husband came through town back in August of '20 and he brought back a couple of 4 packs. I can't recall if we were able to get 25 to Life then or not...but I still have my can in the fridge.

This past weekend (Sat Aug 21, '21) we HAD to stop in to PCBC. We walk in with no one at the host station. Not a big deal. We see someone hobbling up front from the back. As it turns out he (Kyle)) strained his grown. Ouch!! He was pleasant and cordial. We asked if we could round up some chairs and sit to the far right at the bar. Kyle advised us, in the far back to the right there were some seats available at the bar.

We sat at the bar near the service station. Not a big deal. A beertender (in Tie-dyed shirt - Blake)) was near by as well as a woman (Kendall??) washing glasses, practically in front of us. We sat there for several minutes with neither of them acknowledging us. They barely made eye contact. If we had NOT greatly anticipated our visit and had a 3.5 hour drive, we would have walked out. My husband noticed a 2 top near the kitchen window and asked Kyle if we could move to that table. Again hobbling along he was cordial and said we could. There we sat for almost 5 minutes, once again without acknowledgement. Our server (Sarah) came to the table and we gave her a heads up of our experience thus far. She apologized and stated she asked them (team) to cover for her while she was in the restroom.

We asked for menu and beer list. We explained how we had not been here in awhile. She was not familiar with the "for life" series and advised they had a new brewer. Sarah apologized again and said she could "get us" a couple of appetizers. She was very open to discussion regarding the industry, customer service, and feed back on the beer. Sarah loves to use the info from patrons to share with others. (Great way to learn and provide Raving service) Sarah brought over the Assistant Brewer to answer additional questions. Turn out it was Mr. Tie-Dye from the bar. This time he was pleasant and accommodating. He was familiar with the "to life" series and my husband told him I had one in the fridge. He said he wished they had a double IPA (like the "to life" series) They HAD a Double IPA BUT had recently ran out. He suggested the freshly tapped " Southern Passion IPA. Without a taste and on his word we ordered it.

Appetizers came and we both forgot to snap photos (for this anticipated review) before we dove in to them. The meatballs and stuffed mushrooms were both very good. We ordered a pie with mushrooms, well done. As we knew we HAD to bring some brew home, we sampled "1879 Prohibition Era Ale" and Chocolate Stout. Both OK in their own right, but we were looking for a Double IPA. While we could not sample we grabbed a 4 pack on the way out.

If you have followed all the way down here... you either love beer, or work for PCBC :) We wanted to tell the whole story.

I wanted to give a 2 star. My husband says 3, based on past experience and how they recovered.

We ALWAYS give feed back and often hail a manager to provide raving positive feedback...just not this time.

We highly recommend The PCBC staff read Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles book, "Raving Fans" Quick read written in a parable in large font with lots of white space...even those that say "I hate to read" can read it...

So. I remember driving past the old location and wanting to go there. Never time or in the area. My husband had a work trip that happened to be close. It was this or the stockyards. This happened to be closer. I checked the website and was excited about the beer selection so I chose to go there for our date night. HUGE MISTAKE.

The location has moved. Didn’t seem as exciting on the outside. Apparently the new location had only been open for days. I’m a huge believer in waiting on a new business/location to figure things out. So had I known or their website clearly indicated they moved I would have chosen the stockyards.

Also I wouldn’t consider this a brewery I would consider this a restaurant that sells beer. I can get behind family friendly brewery. Breweries are loud. But adult loud. I walked in and immediately got chuck e cheese vibes. I walked in and got smacked in the ear drums with screaming children. Not the sound I want to hear on a seldom brewery date night. I’d need a cigar lounge or liquor store with a high percentage bourbon/vodka/tequila (don’t care at this point) to muffle the screaming children sound. Do parents even parent anymore? Literally kids sprinting across the dining room. Not a pinball machine or robot dancing mouse in sight 🤯🤯🤯 to call this place a brewery is like calling the Dallas cowboys a football team. Hellll nah, jigsaw- I smell a scam.

The I’m guessing owner or manager said “wait a minute” when I said “I just have a quick question” I waited. They talked back and forth about their plans for tables. I just wanted to know if the bar was open seating. I waited and waited. Prob 8 minutes. As it turns out bar is open seating. We barely found 2 barstools together. (SO SHOCKING). The bartender handed us a paper copy of notebook paper with a hand written list of 14 beers. But after they were all marked out with pen there were 4 beers on it. Yup. 4 BEERS. No ipa. I just looked at my husband with such disappointment. The vibe. The variety. HUGE FAILURE.

THANK GOD our uber driver let us know that fuzzys taco had a great bar if we were disappointed. THANK YOU TO HER, OMG. Date night was saved.

Mind you everyone in there had left Parker’s brewery and was complaining about it 🤣🤣 wonder why….. 🤨

fuzzys had NO SCREAMING CHILDREN. A great vibe!! And all beers and cocktails were ✨AVAILABLE✨ we spent our $$ and the next few hours here! Bar tenders were ON POINT AND SO FRIENDLY. Again… NO. SCREAMING. CHILDREN.

Also - Parker’s beers range from $8-$15 what was available was $10+. Our first round at fuzzys plus a generous tip was $12. SOLD.

Avoid Parker’s. Go to fuzzys. I almost said I wish we would have went to the stockyards but WOOO-Eeeee. We had a great time at fuzzys. The drinks, the FOOD. It’s a vibe. Parker’s does NOT have a vibe. Well it does. Chuck E. Cheese vibes. Gross. Avoid.

Disclaimer - fuzzys is not a brewery - nor does it claim to be. BUT GO. DRINK. EAT. 🖤...

Honestly really bummed to be writing this review of this establishment, because other than this instance my S/O and I have really enjoyed our time spent at the restaurant. My fiancée and I decided to treat ourselves and go out for dinner the other night. It was quiet when we arrived and we sat down and was greeted quickly by our server and offered menus and the ability to try a few different samples of beers before we made decisions. We are both beer people, and the server was excited to help us find a beer we would both enjoy. As we placed a beer and food order and waited, our server excitedly brought us out a flight of different beers to try and I thought she was just being kind and offering it on the house because we DEFINITELY didn’t order a flight. We had gotten our food and she asked quickly if we would like to order a certain new dessert she recommended and I replied with “I don’t know, we will see after we are done with our food.” She then replies as she was walking off that she would put the dessert in. When she approached our table to check on us, she says “I will have them put that dessert together when y’all are done with your food,” to which I looked at her incredulously and she asked “oh, you didn’t want that dessert?” To which I repeated what I had said earlier. After this I was almost a bit dumbfounded, and began to suspect that she was trying to make the bill more expensive in hopes to increase her tip. Unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed as we looked at the bill and the flight was on it. I had spend most of the meal so excited by her generosity only to find out that she was charging us for things that we definitely didn’t order. If she would have asked us about the flight, we may have even ordered it, but it was added without any knowledge from me or my fiancée. I left furious because I have never had anything like this happen to me, having been a server myself I can’t even imagine doing this to someone. You don’t know someone’s financial situations. Long rant over. As much as we love the pizza and beer here, we will not be returning if this is how business is conducted at this...